After
enduring three years of his talented but trying secretary of the
treasury, Salmon P. Chase, President Abraham Lincoln finally accepted
one of the secretary's periodic proffers of resignation. As the
president explained to his personal secretary, John Hay, "I thought
I could not stand it any longer." As Chase's replacement,
Lincoln first turned to David Tod, former governor of Ohio, who declined
the position. The president then appointed Senator William
Fessenden of Maine as treasury secretary. In this cartoon,
Lincoln, after having devoured Chase the salmon, requests that his Irish
waiter bring him a "Tod." He is informed, however, that
Tod is unavailable.

Born in 1805, David Tod was the son of a prominent
Ohio judge, and became a practicing attorney in 1827. In 1838, he
was elected as a Democrat to the Ohio State Senate, where he supported
banking regulation and a bill requiring runaway slaves to be returned to
their masters in the South. (In the same period, Chase, an active
abolitionist, was becoming known as the "Attorney General for
Fugitive Slaves" in Ohio.) Tod
did not seek a second term in 1840, but campaigned tirelessly for other
Democratic candidates. He did attempt to return to the state
senate in 1844 and 1846, but was narrowly defeated both times.

In March 1847, President James K. Polk named Tod as U.S. minister to Brazil,
where he served until 1851. Back in Ohio, Tod became wealthy by investing
in railroads, coal mines, and iron foundries. In 1858, he was soundly
defeated for congress in a race in which he exhibited little interest. In
1860, he served as chairman of the Northern Democratic National Convention in
Baltimore, and then campaigned actively for its presidential nominee, Senator
Stephan A. Douglas of Illinois.

When the Civil War began in April 1861, Tod became a War Democrat who joined
with the Republicans in united support for the Union war effort. That
summer, the Union Party, a coalition of Republicans and War Democrats, nominated
Tod for governor of Ohio, and he easily defeated his Democratic opponent in the
fall. Tod worked hard as a war governor to supply troops for the Union
military and to provide for their needs, including adequate equipment, rations,
transportation, pay, and health care. In 1862, however, the Peace
Democrats, who favored a ceasefire and negotiated settlement, won control of
Ohio's other state offices and most of its congressional seats.

In 1863, Tod maneuvered to secure his gubernatorial renomination by
the Union Party. Salmon Chase, however, was not pleased by the
idea. Like other Ohio Republicans, the treasury secretary did not
like how Tod had appointed so many of his old Democratic allies to state
posts, and was concerned about the governor's lack of commitment to the
Emancipation Proclamation (which had just gone into effect). At
the party's convention that summer, Chase's surrogates prevented Tod's
renomination. It is uncertain whether they were acting directly on
instructions from Chase, which he denied, but Tod and his supporters
blamed the treasury secretary.

At the time, Chase was angling to grab the Republican presidential
nomination away from Lincoln, and he was supported in that effort by a
group of radical Republicans dismayed with Lincoln's mild Reconstruction
plan (announced in December 1863). In
February 1864, the Chase campaign circulated two pamphlets, both calling
for a new president and the second one explicitly designating Chase as
the man for the job. Rather than generate support, its publication
created an anti-Chase backlash, prompting even the Republicans of his
home state to endorse the presidentís reelection. With the
collapse of his trial balloon, Chase announced on March 5 that he was
not a candidate for the presidential nomination.

In
late June 1864, Chase offered to resign his cabinet post, an empty
gesture the secretary had made several times before. This
time, however, the president accepted it. Without consulting with
advisors, Lincoln nominated former governor Tod to replace Chase as
treasury secretary. Besides rewarding an important electoral state
by naming another Ohioan, the president considered Tod a friend who had
served the Union cause well. Lincoln may also have intended it as
an implicit insult to Chase.

The
announcement of the nomination, however, brought criticism from
influential politicians and the press. Senator Fessenden, chairman
of the powerful Senate Finance Committee, urged the president to
withdraw the nomination, but Lincoln remained firm. The New
York Herald joked that Tod knew "no more of finances than a
post." The president was quickly saved from further
embarrassment when Tod telegraphed that he had to decline the offer
because of poor health. (He had previously suffered several bouts
of apoplexy, which finally killed him in 1868.)

The next day, Lincoln sent Fessenden's name to the Senate, which took
two minutes to approve the appointment. Fessenden had not
discussed the matter with the president, so was shocked to learn that he
was the new treasury secretary. Content in the Senate and ailing
in health, Fessenden declined the offer. Lincoln, though, insisted
that the senator take the cabinet post out of a sense of national duty,
and a flood of positive telegrams from bankers and other finance
officers bolstered the president's position. Fessenden reluctantly
acquiesced, but served less than a year, returning to the Senate in
early 1865.

In December 1864, President Lincoln appointed Chase chief justice of
the U.S. Supreme Court, where he served until his death in 1873.
Tod continued to pursue his business interests and never served in
public office again.